Anthea
by sillyrandomness
Summary: Anthea has always been a bit of a black box, but what if there is even more to her, than we think? What if she was born during arthurian times?
1. Chapter 1

A long time ago, after the Great purge, a bandit fell in love with a druid woman. He leaves his band to live with her. She has to hide from the rage of King Uther, and he knows he would never be accepted in the society because of his past.

They live a simple life in a hut outside a small village. They share a few happy months, then she notices she is pregnant. They are a bit worried because they do not have much they can offer their baby, but they promise they will love it with all they have.

Some time later, a little baby girl is born. She has black peach fuzz on her head and bright blue eyes that would turn brown over time. They call her Anthea and for a short time everything seemed to be great. Then the mother catches a fever. Still weakened from giving birth it quickly leads to her death. The local healer refuses to help a robber who is not married to the woman he has a child with.

When she dies, she makes him promise her that he will take care of their little girl. He promises. But he is still an outcast. He doesn't know how to take care of a child. He can't ask any of the local mothers to help him, they despise him. So he goes somewhere he thought he would never go back to. He returns to his band. You can't say they greet him with open arms, after almost two years of absence, but the leader's wife says she will help him with the baby. So he stays and Anthea grows up with the bandits. Some say that they don't want a baby with them, it would be to dangerous and she would hinder them from doing their work. But very soon even they love with the little baby girl and they will take care of her, no matter what happens.

When Anthea is four years old she starts to ask where her mother is. Her father tells her she is somewhere else and Anthea shouldn't worry because he is sure she is fine. Anthea wants to know what this other place is and why mother is there, but when she asks father gets very sad and says he is sorry she has to grow up without a mother. But Anthea thinks that's alright, because she has a big family. There is Aunt Mary that has taken care of her when she was a baby and who always wears very pretty dresses and she loves to sit in her lap and listen to her stories about magic and the days before the great purge, when Mary was a child. Aunt Mary has offered to make her a dress, but Anthea likes her trousers better, because she likes to run and play hide and seek with father and uncle Dan and uncle Bob.

They have some horses. She was there when they brought them to the camp. Uncle Sam says they stole them from some very rich people. He said he would teach her how to ride, when she is older. For now she can sit on it's back and he will walk it. At the beginning it is really scary, because the horse is so big, and it sways very much. But uncle Sam tells her to hold on to the saddle and when she gets used to the movement, she likes it very much. And then there is uncle Marco, he is really big and has long dark hair and a big beard. He is the boss of the bandits and Mary's husband. Everyone does what he says, even father. But she likes to make braids in his beard and hair and then show him in aunt Mary's mirror, because then he laughs and says he looks like a girl. She doesn't think there is something wrong with that, she is a girl after all. When she tells Marco he says: "Of course there is nothing wrong with it, you're a great girl, why don't you help uncle John with the fire?"

For her sixth birthday she gets her own knife. She likes the knife, you can do all kinds of useful things with it. For example, she could help father with making bows. Or cut strings for traps, now that she is allowed to go to the forest with the others to set up traps and to take the animals they caught from them. They also try to teach her how to set up traps, but she doesn't really understand it yet, though she tries her best. One time they caught a fox puppy, but Uncle Marco said they would let it go, because it was still so young. Uncle Sam teaches her how to ride and when she rides around the camp the first time alone everyone applauds and father hugs her and tells her that he is very proud of her, and that her mother would be very proud too. This makes little Anthea very happy and she thinks she will try to make him proud again.

When she is eight she wants to go mugging with the others but they tell her she is not old enough yet. Instead they teach her how to pick pockets without anyone noticing it. She is allowed to practise with her family, that's what the other bandits are for her now. She always presents her prey in the evening to the others. It earns her a lot of laughter and exclamations of surprise, when they realise their knife or anything else they had in their pockets is missing, without them even noticing it. When they say she is good enough, they send her to a fair with aunt Mary to steal money from the other visitors.

Uncle James (he and John are twins, they look completely the same, but she can tell them apart) shows her how to sneak up on people and how to move in the forest without making much noise.

She practises that when she and Mary go to get water for washing the clothes of the others.

Uncle John teaches her how to throw a knife and how to use a slingshot. She is pretty good at that, he says she has a very good aim and that she must have inherited that from her father. He promises her to show her how to use bow and arrow when she is strong enough to cock a bowstring.

At ten years, she is finally allowed to go on attacks with the others. Her job is it to climb a tree, hide there and look out for victims. When she sees them she makes a noise like an owl to inform the others. They tell her that her work is very important and that she does a great job. She is very proud of herself.

For her eleventh birthday her father makes her her first bow. Her father takes her out for hunting and when she catches her first rabbit by shooting it with the bow, her father looks at her the way he did when she first rode a horse on her own. She wants to learn how to fight with a sword, but she is only allowed to use a wooden sword.

One time she tries to steal one of the swords that the others use, but it's really heavy so she can't carry it very far. They try to teach her hand to hand combat and she is not too bad at it, but it is very exhausting. And the others can teach her only as much as they know and some of them never actually got taught how to fight.

One time she goes out to check on the traps and collect what they caught, she is almost thirteen years old and tomorrow is her birthday. In the first trap she finds a crow with a broken wing. She feels sorry for the bird, she has always admired their ability to just fly away. Loosing that must be horrible.

"Poor you," she says "shush I'm not going to hurt you, I will help you." The bird tries to peck her hand with his beak in response.

"Hey, please calm down, I need to get you out of the trap." Carefully she opens the trap and takes the bird out. As soon as her fingers touch the bird, she feels a blast of energy tingling through her body and into the bird. In shock she lets go of the crow and it flies away, both wings completely intact, throwing her a look that clearly says 'Took you some time didn't it.'

Anthea decides to check on the other traps and see if she can do it again, but the traps are either empty or it doesn't work. Perhaps because the animals in question were already dead.

She decides not to tell anyone, not even father. This is her secret, her miracle, and she wants to keep it.

A few days later it happens again. She is spying on a merchant and his workers. She has the job to shoot at the path behind the horses to make them panic and to drive them into the arms of the band. She lets out a bellow like a fox to inform the others that she will shoot any minute. Then she shoots her first arrow and it almost hits the horse in the hind leg. It jumps forward, but the rider has enough control over it to stop it from running away. She shoots another arrow and for some reason she looses her balance on the branch. In panic she tries to get hold of something, because the tree is pretty damn high and she does not fancy breaking all of her bones. Hell, she just turned thirteen, she is to young to die! She hangs on to the branch with both her hands and tries to get back up. But the branch is slippery, it has been raining a lot lately and she can't hold on any longer. She is slipping, her bow is the first thing that falls, then the arrows. The horses start running, they are almost directly under the tree now, if she falls, she will get trampled over by them. She tries to hold on a bit longer, but she knows the fall is inevitable. It is almost a miracle that she doesn't fall until the last horse passes by under her. She tries to get on the branch again one last time, but she doesn't have the strength. She falls and then she feels this energy again and her fall starts to slow down, until she hits the ground, feet first like a cat and then the energy fades.

She runs in the direction of the others and sees that they have knocked the poor merchants out and stripped them naked. Her father is sitting on one of the horses, and pulls her on it's back behind him.

"Where are your weapons?"

"They fell down, the horses ran them over." She doesn't tell him that she fell of the tree.

"It's not like you to loose your weapons."

"I know I'm sorry." She really is, this was the bow she got for her eleventh birthday. But she feels that surviving such a fall, with the help of some power she has seems to have makes up for it.

The next day, she climbs on a tree and jumps of, just to see if it will work again. It does, she feels the now familiar stream of energy again. It's warm and powerful and fills her body to her fingertips when she falls, the fall slows down, it's almost like flying. She lands on her feet and laughs. Still high from the adrenaline and this strange energy, she looks for another tree, a bigger one and climbs up, just to jump of the top. It works again, and again with the next tree. She loves this feeling, it's addictive.

In the night she lays awake in her tent, it's a new one, one of the merchants' tents, and tries to figure out, what the energy is.

"It must be magic.", she decides. She also decides not to tell anyone, because she knows magic is prohibited in the kingdom and everyone who has magic will be sentenced to death. She thinks about telling father, but she thinks it will put him in danger if he knows.

The next year, she is trying to learn how to control the magic, but it doesn't seem to work. One time she tries to summon the energy, to lift a leave from the ground, but nothing happens. When she turns away, frustrated, the energy suddenly arises and the leave catches fire. She has a hard time putting it out. After that accident, she doesn't try it again. She is afraid, she might hurt anyone.

When she is fifteen, she is finally allowed to not just spook the horses, but to actually help robbing the victims. Sometimes, men get killed, but only the ones that are being robbed. She tries not to kill anyone, she just knocks them out and that works pretty well.

Well, until this one night.

The plan is good, they have heard that some merchants and a few knights are camping not so far from their camp. Because of the knights, they plan to attack at night, when most of them are sleeping. She and uncle James are supposed to sneak near the guards and knock them out without making to much sound.

Then the rest of the band will come and steal what they can from their sleeping victims. They will take the horses with them for transport and then Anthea and Marco will sell them, like they always do.

It does not work. The guard she was supposed to take care of wakes up again, without anyone noticing and alarms the others who are peacefully sleeping in their tents.

Torches are lit, someone reignites the campfire. A battle breaks out and the bandits are outnumbered. She fights alongside her father and tries to do her best, even if she is rubbish with swords when it comes to a real fight. She concentrates so hard, that she doesn't notice her fathers cry between all the yelling and shouting. She only notices, that he isn't fighting by her side anymore. She blocks a blow from one of the merchants with her sword, luckily he isn't such a good fighter, so she manages to send him stumbling backwards with a kick of her foot.

She kneels down beside her father and tries to find out what's wrong. It is not very hard. He's got a wound directly on his chest and it must be very deep, judging by all the blood that's spluttering out of the wound. She holds his head with her hands, stabilizing it. He tries to choke out words, but the only thing that comes out of his mouth is blood. The sword must have pierced a lung. She has seen this kind of injury before, so she knows there is no way he will survive it. She stays with him, tears streaming down her face. She lays his head down on the ground and just kneels beside him, holding his hand. The battle around her seems to be far away, she hears the noises, but they are muffled and she never lifts her eyes away from her father's. His eyes widen, he chokes out more blood and then he lies still. Terribly still and all life that was in him seems gone, as if his soul flew away and now he is nothing more than an empty shell.

She screams, tears roll down her face as she weeps over his dead body. Suddenly the noises of the battle roar in her ears again. She looks up, anger and sorrow raging inside her and she feels the familiar stream of energy again. But this time it is not warm and good and bubbly, it's cold, it burns and it is pure, raw power. She doesn't even try to hold it back. The fire starts to grow, the flames lash out and and inflames everything in reach. Then the flames capture the merchants and knights.. She is frozen, she hears the screams, she feels their pain through the connection with her magic.

The bandits retreat, someone grabs her arm and drags her along. She can see two people carrying the body of her father. Then she blacks out.

They never speak of the incident. Her father is buried, they plant a tree on his grave, she tries to carry on. She puts her mind on other things, like training to fight. She doesn't want to think about the magic. It scares her. But what scares her even more is that some little par of her loved the flow of the raw energy and might coursing through her body.

She practises her fighting skills so aggressively, that at some point no one wants to practise with her anymore, not even with wooden swords, because that almost always leads to bruises and injuries.

Whenever someone comes to her tent and tries to talk about her father, she gets angry. She doesn't want to talk about that night, about what happened and why. When she gets angry, she feels the magic again and often there is a wind blowing outside, the entrance to her tent shuts closely so no one can open it.

She seems to loose control over the magic. Not that she ever had control, but now it just flares up whenever she gets in a bad mood. Then the trees start to crack, the wind rises and almost becomes a storm and she has to try really hard to calm down again.

Sometimes, when it is her turn to set the fire and cook something, the wood catches fire without her even touching it.

She knows she is getting dangerous and she doesn't like the thought. They are her family after all, and she swears to herself she will never hurt her family.

One year later she doesn't go with the others anymore. She stays at the camp with aunt Mary to guard it. She hates it at the camp, she hates sitting around not doing anything but waiting. Marco tries to talk her into coming with them again, but she says she is scared. They both know what she means by that. sShe is not scared for herself, but for everyone else she might hurt.

A new man joins the band. His name is Martin, he is a bit older than she is and he doesn't quite understand that he is beneath her in the hierarchy. He thinks he can boss her around because he is older than her. She doesn't like him. He is too self conscious and the others told her he was endangering them by trying to work alone and not as part of the team.

Half a year after he joined the band, Marco asks her to help them with a mugging, because they need everyone they can get for this "mission" as he calls it. She is sick of sitting around at the camp, so she agrees.

It does not go well. At all. Martin has apparently decided he doesn't need to follow orders, so he jumps to attack before Marco gives the signal. That ruins the plan for everyone, to take them by surprise and outnumber them.

They manage, but it appears that Martin is better at ignoring orders than fighting, or supporting the others. She got hit on the shoulder with something hard, because she was busy saving him from a blow he didn't see coming, because he was busy commenting the fighting style of James. And now she can't move her left arm properly and to top it all, Martin demands part of her prey.

"You can't be serious!", she says dangerously soft. Everyone else knows to back of, when she uses that tone, they have heard it quite often since her fathers death.

"Why of course I'm serious, I led the attack, you were just following me." he answers completely oblivious.

"You have endangered every single one of us with your stupid, reckless behaviour." She says and together with her voice a wind rises behind her.

"You were not the one who led the attack, that was Marco, because he leads the whole group. We could have all died because of you. And had it not been for me, you would have died today. You have no right to demand part of my prey!"

The trees start to crack and shake, the other members of the group that had been following the argument with wide eyes hurry to secure the tents and calm horses.

"I haven't seen you doing anything during the battle, I think I have every right to demand it." She can't believe it, how can anyone be so thick?!

But she feels the magic raging inside her, ready to strike and decides to end the argument by giving in, before anything happens.

Still boiling inside she says: "Alright, you can have it, it's over there, take what you want."

"See I knew you would understand.", he says already turning away. And then he winks. He actually dares to wink at her. Inside her something roars. It's almost like an animal, and right before Martin, a branch crashes to the ground and almost hits him. He turns around in shock and looks into her eyes. She doesn't know what he sees in them, she has never seen them turning to swirling flames of gold, when she does magic.

He sees them.

He points his finger at her.

"WITCH", he cries "SHE WILL DOOM US!"

When she hears the always unspoken truth everyone here knew, spoken, screamed at her, and everyone turns to look at her, she panics. She looses every last bit of control she has over the magic and it takes over, she doesn't realise what is happening until she hears the screams.

She snaps out of some kind of trance, her eyes turn back to normal and she sees what's happening. Like the night her father died, everything that is flammable has caught fire. Except of the area around her, there is a circle around her that is completely unharmed.

She sees her family fighting the flames, hastily trying to put them out.

With a desperate cry she starts running, into the forest, far, far away from everything.

She breaks down under a tree, out of breath, sobbing and gasping for air. She lays there until the exhaustion takes over and she blacks out.

When she wakes up, she decides to never return to her family. She is too dangerous. It's for the best if she keeps far away from everything. She has to hide from the king, she is pretty sure she heard Uther had died and that now his son Arthur was king, but how could she be sure Arthur was not following the ideals of his father.

She settles in in a cave that lies about two days of walking distance away from the next village. The first year is hard, the only thing she took with her when she fled was the knife she got for her sixth birthday. She makes herself a bow, it's not as good as the ones Sam made, but it will work. She sets traps and catches animals, she manages to survive. She has to find something else for the winter.

During harvesting season, she travels to the village and steals as much as she can carry. She has to do this journey often during winter.

The next year is easier, because she steals a ploughing horse from someone's field. It is strong enough to carry heavy things, but light enough, that it can run relatively fast. It helps her during winter, though she has to leave it hidden in the forest, when she goes for the village, because the hoof tracks would be hard to cover.

Sometime in Winter she hears a knock on the makeshift door of her cave. When she opens, she sees a woman in the clothes of the druids. She is shaking in the cold. Anthea helps her in and offers her some soup. The woman smiles at her, she obviously is grateful, but she doesn't talk at all.

When Anthea asks her for her name she shows her that she can't speak because someone has cut of her tongue off. They spend most of the winter in silence. Anthea likes the company (horses in your home don't count as company). It is good to have someone to take care of, it is a good feeling to help.

When spring comes, the woman prepares to leave. Anthea asks her to stay, but the woman just smiles at her and takes her hands. She looks deep into Anthea's eyes

"_Go to Camelot" _a voice in Anthea's head says. Anthea jerks back, but the grip of the woman is surprisingly strong. She does not break eye contact and Anthea understands "You?", she whispers.

The woman smiles again and nods.

"_Go to Camelot" _the voice says again _"__Find Emrys, he will help." _

"Camelot?!" Anthea gasps, because Camelot is probably the most dangerous place for someone like her.

"_Yes, thank you for everything. I can not help you, but Emrys can. Find him." _the woman waves her arm, in the direction of Camelot, Anthea supposes.

The woman let's go of her hands and walks into the forest, but not to where she had pointed Anthea to. No, she walks away in the opposite direction.

Anthea spends the rest of the day packing what she needs. She doesn't want to rob someone on her way. She doesn't want to arrive to Camelot as a prisoner.

The next morning she adjusts the makeshift bags with her things to the horse's back. Then she swings up on his back and rides off, taking a bit of a tighter hold on the reins, and makes way to the direction the woman had shown her.

AN: Thank you for reading. This is my first fanfiction ever, so naturally I'm a bit nervous about posing it, but I had this idea floating around in my head for almost a year so there you go. Also english is not my first language and I seem to be a bit allergic towards the rules of punctuation and speech marks. I've tried my best, but pleas do point out if my made any mistakes, I'll come back and fix it.

Reviews make me happy, so please tell me what you think :)


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN:** Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or other things from neither Sherlock nor Merlin. It all belongs to the BBC _

_Second chapter :D I'm so excited! I hope I managed to get Merlin in Arthur in Character, I haven't watched Merlin in a long time, so I'm sorry if I didn't._

_Reviews are like cookies, so give me many!_

_**Chapter 1**_

"Remind me again why are we on this - Hey look there's a horse!" a voice exclaimed cheerfully. Anthea stopped on the spot. There were people. At her camp. Slowly she went closer, hiding in the shadows of the trees, holding the rabbit she caught in a trap with both hands so it wouldn't slump into a bush and make a noise.

"Don't be ridiculous _Mer_lin" Another voice responded "we are in the middle of a forest I'm sure there's no - " Apparently he had just discovered the horse. Cautiously she moved in sight distance to the clearing. There were to men standing there. One was very lanky with black hair and worn clothes. The other one was a bit smaller, had blond hair and was wearing chain mail a knight probably they were both holding a horse.

"See I told you there was a horse! But do you ever listen to me? Noooo especially not when I say don't go on this quest Arthur, there is no point in it and afterwards I will have to clean all your stuff twice and then you make them dirty again in less than two minutes! Do you know how much time it takes to clean it?!" The black haired man, _`Merlin´_ she reminded herself, complained. A small laugh escaped Anthea and she cursed herself for letting it slip, hopefully the knight hadn't heard over Merlin's complaint.

"Merlin will you shut up for a second I think there is someone in the bushes."

_`Dammit´_

"Whatever you say"

"There is no point in hiding! We know you are there!" The knight exclaimed rather pompously.

Anthea shortly considered just going to the forest and hide there until they were gone but there was no actual point in that, sooner or later she would have to come out. Might as well just do it now.

"Who are you?", she asked when she stepped out on the clearing "_pretend to be strong, even though you might be weak"_ she remembered her dad saying, "what are you doing here?" her voice was cracking a bit at the first words because she hadn't used it in a while but it got better the more she said.

"You're a girl", the knight said and stared at the rabbit.

"Um yes? Obviously? Who are you?" she raised her brow and looked back at them, trying to challenge them with her look. _"Pretend to be strong."_

The black haired man cleared his throat "I'm Merlin" he said. She guessed he was about 25 years old. As he looked at her, her magic began to pulse through he body almost as strong as on the day she had left her "family", as if it was responding to something. He seemed to have felt the same because his eyes widened with almost recognition .Then he blinked and the connection broke. He slightly shook his head "This is Arthur" he pointed at the knight.

"And who are _you_?" Arthur asked and cocked an eyebrow himself.

"My name is Anthea" She said really fast and before they could ask her more she asked: "Are you hungry?" and raised the rabbit

"Yes!" Arthur said. "Merlin take care of the horses and then you can cook the rabbit."

"Maybe Anthea can show me where to find water, I mean I'd probably get lost somewhere" Merlin threw Arthur an apologetic grin.

"Actually _Merlin_ you're right. Anthea show him where water is."

"I get you get to command him, but who made you _my _boss?"

"Oh," Merlin responded instead of Arthur, "He is the king, the tone is basically part of the job"

"Shut up Merlin!"

…... °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°...°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°...

For some reason Arthur had insisted on them taking buckets with them, instead of just the horses, when Merlin complained Arthur, Arthur just told him to do his job. But when Anthea wanted to carry the second bucket herself, Merlin still took it from her anyway.

She showed him a small path between the trees that had been formed by animals who were drinking from the small stream of water that was flowing not so far way from the clearing

Suddenly he stopped

"What's the matter?" She asked

"Who are you?" he turned around and stared her in the eyes. Immediately her magic flared up again.

"I told you, I am Anthea?", she said cautiously, she didn't like the way this conversation was going.

"No I mean who are you really? What are your intentions, why are you here? Because if you are a threat to the King I will have to get rid of you." Suddenly the lanky man looked intimidating.

"I'm sorry but I think I don't know what you mean." She knew damn well what he meant, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"Don't pretend, you know exactly what I am talking about! Your magic, it is extremely powerful. I only know two beings who posses equal or even more power. One of them is me and the other one is a dragon. So I want to know who you are, where you are going and why."

He started walking again and Anthea tried to process the information, that Merlin was apparently a mighty sorcerer and that dragons existed. But she decided to tell him, maybe he could help her find this Emrys.

When they had filled the buckets with water, she sat down on the side of the water and told him. She told him about how everything started when her father died, how she had somehow almost known it all her live. How it had happened again and how she had fled in terror from the bandits camp. And about the druid woman that had told her to go to Camelot and find Emrys. She spoke more than she had in the last two years. It felt weird to finally let it out, but it got easier and easier the longer she talked, it felt like lifting a huge burden, finally telling someone who might understand.

"Well lucky for you" Merlin beamed when she finished "I, the manservant of King Arthur Pendragon am Emrys, at your service. But please don't call me Emrys, I really hate that name."

"What you are Emrys?", she gasped. "Can you help me?"

Merlin scratched his head "Um no not really, but I might no someone who does."

"Well then bring me to him!" she said excitedly, but he cut her off.

"He might not want to help." He added furrowing his eyebrows.

"Why not? I have to at least ask him! Who is he? Maybe I can go alone if you just tell me where to go!" In her excitement the words just blasted out of her, she felt almost like a little girl.

"Yeah well I can't... you see I would, I promise, but I don't know where he is."

"Why not, is he not someone you know personally?"

"Oh I do know him" he said "way too well" he added more to himself. Anthea wondered who this person might be "but er … it's complicated. I will have to call him and I can't really do that in front of Arthur, him being king and all."

"When can you call him then?" Her excitement slowly changed to concern, would she never be able to get help for her problem? When she thought about it, it wasn't really a problem, it was more like a condition and that conditions could be changed couldn't they?

"When we are back in Camelot. I'm afraid you will have to follow us there. It's going to take some time I'm really sorry." He actually looked sad! Some part of Anthea that she didn't really acknowledge over the last years was a bit amused, how much part he took in her condition. Most of her though was disappointed. Why couldn't at least some things in life be easy?

"Oh well, it's fine." she said and tried to keep the disappointment from showing on her face. "I'll just follow you and wait."

"Good" Merlin said and smiled again, "let's see if the clotpole's managed to make a fire and build up the tents on his own."

"Clotpole?!" She asked,"that isn't even a word!"

"It is, Arthur is the living proof!" he grinned.

"Didn't you say he was the king?"

"Yes?"

"And you are his manservant?"

"Yes? Why are you asking."

"Oh I was just wondering, you don't seem to have much respect for him."

"Oh I do respect him, he is a great king and a great man, He would do anything for his people. But he is also my friend. Don't tell him I said that! But when we first met, he was quite a prat"

On the way back, he told her how he had met Arthur the first time and had unknowingly insulted the crown prince. And how he'd been thrown to the stocks for it, but later saved Arthur's live and became his manservant. "Didn't keep him from throwing me to the stocks though." He added "Sometimes he did it just for fun. At least he doesn't do it anymore, he needs someone to polish his armour and carry his water buckets."

When they arrived at the clearing Anthea was just laughing about a particular incident Merlin had told her about, that had involved Arthur and a Goblin. It felt good to laugh, she hadn't been really laughing in a long time. Not since she had left her family behind.

"So he didn't only have the ears, he couldn't talk, whenever he would open his mouth, he would just sound like a donkey." Merlin giggled.

"_Mer_lin!_" _Arthur yelled from behind a tent that he was apparently just setting up "We agreed never to talk of it again and most of all not to _tell _anyone!"

Merlin shrugged: "He's a bit touchy about the subject." he said to Anthea. "Sorry!" he yelled in the general direction of the tent

"Bit late now is it?" Came the answer, "what took you so long?", he came out from behind the tent, "I swear Merlin only you could take so long to find water even when someone is showing you the way."

"Oh I'm sorry", Anthea said, "it's my fault, I was telling him why I am travelling through the forest."

"Well then, tell me again, why are you travelling through the forest? All alone at that?"

Anthea had no idea what to say. "Because I have magic and I don't know how to control it, so I came to find Emrys who happens to be you manservant, even though magic is prohibited and persecuted by death." Didn't really seem to be a good way to answer the question.

"_Let me handle it."_ she heard Merlin's voice in her head. He did that too?! Was that some kind of sorcery thing she didn't know about?

"Do you remember the village Morgana burnt down two weeks ago? Because you refused to talk to her about the throne?" Merlin said

Arthur threw Merlin an incredulous look: "No Merlin I don't remember a mad and dangerous witch burning down an entire village. What has that got to do with her?"

"Well Anthea is one of the survivors, and she wanted to come to Camelot, to live in the safety of the castle."

"She doesn't seem particularly sad for a survivor of a catastrophe like that, the way she laughed her head of a few minutes ago"

"She's got a strong mind, and managed to get over it pretty fast" Merlin said in the most unconvincing tone ever. Anthea gave an enthusiastic nod. _He is never going to believe such a shallow story, it is just too convenient_. She thought.

"Is that true?" Arthur asked sceptically

"Yes sire, totally true. I couldn't think of anything holding more truth." She tried to look as convincing and sad as possible.

"Well I guess that explains the clothing and the ploughing horse... " Arthur said. "Merlin, make us some food!"

"Why do I always have to make the food?" Merlin complained

"Because _Mer_lin, it is your job."

"I don't remember agreeing to that."

"Well you didn't exactly have much of a choice."

Anthea laughed, they were bickering like an old married couple. They reminded her of Marco and Mary. She tossed Merlin the rabbit, that was still lying on the ground where she left it. "Just roast it over the fire or something, I'll go and give the water to the horses."

"_So who is this Morgana?"_ she thought experimentally in the direction of Merlin, while they were sitting around, eating the stew Merlin had made with the rabbit and some other supplies. It was pretty good, She had to give him that.

"_Kind of a sore topic,",_ to her surprise he actually answered, _"She is Arthur's half sister, she was pretty nice when I came to Camelot but then she discovered she had magic and got very desperate because she was afraid Uther might discover it she was his ward you see. So she fled to the druids for help, but Uther thought they kidnapped her and sent out his men to get her back. Then her other sister Morgause turned up – she is dead by now – and put a curse on Camelot that was supposed to kill Uther. The curse was linked to Morgana's life, so it would only fade, if she died. I had to poison her to break the curse" _Merlin thought sadly and Anthea felt that it had been one of the hardest things he had to do in his life. _"She was my friend until then." _He added.

"_I'm sorry" _Anthea thought and she meant it.

"_Don't be, I had no other choice. So when the curse broke and Morgana was almost dead, Morgause turned up and took Morgana with her. We never found out what happened during that time. But one year later Morgana turned up again and from then on she was constantly trying to kill Uther. And no one noticed until it was too late. Which really is a miracle, considering all the evil smirks she's been throwing." A _wave of sadness and pain washed through Merlin's thoughts and Anthea wondered why he was so sad about the death of the man that had killed thousands of his kind. Merlin seemed to have noticed that _"It was a terribly hard time for Arthur, his father was dead and suddenly he was king he made a lot of decisions he never wanted to make because his uncle was influencing him. He was a double agent for Morgana. Then she somehow managed to take over Camelot. We gained it back and now she tries to kill Arthur and me. Sometimes I think it might be my fault all of this happened."_

"_Why?"_

"_If I had told her about my magic back then, she wouldn't have been all alone. I could have helped her control it and maybe she would have never met Morgause."_

Merlin didn't seem to want to talk about it anymore, so she broke the connection and turned to Arthur: "What does the king do in this woods? Are you trying to capture Morgana?"

"Oh no, we are here because our dearest king prat –" here Merlin slapped Arthur on the hand because he was trying to take part of Merlin's bread, "decided, that he needs to get some time off and hunt mythical animals, to impress Gwen." Arthur frowned "She is his wife."Merlin added. "I have no idea why she puts up with him."

"Merlin!" Arthur snapped.

"So did you catch the animal?" Anthea asked, she had never seen any mythical creatures or other creatures of magic at all, so if they had a head of a unicorn or something, she was dying to see it.

"Well we would have, but _Mer_lin here wouldn't let me shoot it." Arthur glared at him

"That is, because the last time you killed some magic creature, you ended up sacrificing yourself for me and I won't be having that again." Merlin crossed his arms. Anthea was surprised, there really must be something special about the relationship between Arthur and Merlin. She couldn't imagine a king to sacrifice himself for a mere servant.

"What happened?"

"Well, Arthur shot a unicorn, I told him not to, but he couldn't resist. Turned out the guardian of the unicorns wasn't all that happy, so he put Camelot under a curse, you might have noticed it, that time, when harvesting suddenly was not possible anymore, because the crop had died and stuff like that?"

Anthea shook her head.

"Anyway, to lift the curse Arthur had to prove he had a pure heart. Anhora, the guardian gave us two cups, one with poison, one with water we had to choose which one to drink. Arthur poured them together in one and drank it all. I later learned, that it was only a sleeping potion, so that's why he's still alive. The unicorn came back to life by the way." he said and grinned.

"Uhm yeah good for the unicorn." Anthea smiled, she wasn't exactly sure what to do with that last information.

"Well then," Arthur said and rose from the ground. "I think we should all go to sleep, it's going to be a long ride tomorrow. You are coming with us to Camelot aren't you?"

"Yes sure, it's where I was planning to go after all."

"Alright, do you have a tent?"

She shook her head

"Oh, well you can have ours, Merlin won't mind won't you?"

"Actually I do, but you won't care, so there's no point in saying it."

Anthea frowned, she didn't mind sleeping in the same tent as Arthur and Merlin, she grew up with seven men and one woman around her, but if they were uncomfortable with that, she would just sleep outside the way she had for the last week. She told them.

"Arthur can't she just sleep in the tent with us?" Merlin asked "It's cold and no one will ever know. Also you're married so what's the problem?" Anthea wondered, why he didn't consider himself a problem, while trying to convince Arthur that two men and a woman could sleep in the same tent without anything happening.

"Oh alright then, Merlin do the dishes and then you will have the first watch, I'll do the second one." Arthur said. He didn't look too happy, but the coming chill of the night seemed to help greatly with changing his mind.

'What about me?' Anthea wanted to ask, but Merlin's voice in her head interrupted her: _"Don't, he is already suspicious, just play the vulnerable girl until we arrive in Camelot. You can't just tell the king that you had combat training with a band of robbers."_

"_I'm a girl, I'm not made of sugar."_, she answered _"I am capable of taking care of myself you know."_

"_I know, you told me."_

Anthea shook her head, then she went to her horse and checked if the knot was still tied. And then she went in the tent. She made herself comfortable and fell asleep almost immediately.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Heya, I'm back. Sorry about disappearing... school happened... Take the fluff as an excuse!**

Travelling with Merlin and Arthur turned out to be much faster then what she was used to. While the robbers always had to break up camp and pack up everything when they were forced to move (which had taken, even with the great hurry and efficiency they'd been doing it, at least half a day), Arthur and Merlin had only a small tent, their bedrolls and a few cooking utensils to carry which were quickly strapped to the horses. Not surprisingly her horse had trouble keeping up with the speed of the of the high bred royal horses. Even though heavy bred to be able to carry a knight in full armour, they were used to travel long distances in high speed. So Anthea and her horse which was now also used as packhorse were most of the time in the back.

Travelling in the back, she had a lot of time to watch the way Merlin and Arthur behaved around each other. Even without the practice of observing various travelling companies, anyone could tell what deep friendship they shared. The willingness of Merlin to protect Arthur had surprised her, they seemed to have a good relationship at first sight, but the way Merlin's head jerked up in alarm every time a twig in the woods as much as cracked she thought his feelings towards Arthur must go much deeper than just the duty to his king. Seeing how Arthur always made fun of Merlin about the smallest things, first made her think that Merlin didn't mean as much to Arthur as vice versa. But when she started to observe Arthur more, she noticed the same signs of protectiveness on him. If something moved in the forest that seemed a bit out of the ordinary, Arthur would immediately glance at Merlin, while his hand wandered to the hilt of his sword and would only let go again, when the movement turned out to be harmless.

Merlin kept talking to Arthur most of their trip, telling him the most ridiculous things. Arthur would roll his eyes and tell Merlin to shut up, but sometimes Anthea caught glimpses of a little, fond smile on the kings face, whenever Merlin pouted and looked away. Silent for the moment, but sure to start talking again only a few minutes later. They usually rested at noon, giving the horses a break, but they would only set up camp in the evening. While Merlin made a fire and prepared the tent, Arthur practised with his sword, only simple movements, due to a lack of partner, but way more organized than anything Anthea had learned. Some of the techniques were familiar, but while the robbers mostly relied on the element of surprise and number and fought after the motto "get them with the pointy end", Arthur showed life long experience and skill. Sometimes she would catch Merlin, standing around, seemingly having forgotten what he had been doing, holding a random object in his hands and staring at Arthur, probably thinking Arthur was too caught up in his exercise to notice.

Anthea knew better though, she could see that Arthur once in a while glanced at Merlin to see if he was looking and then performed a particularly complicated move. When Merlin noticed she had caught him looking at Arthur, his ears would flush red and he would hastily continue his task. She had to admit though, Arthur was a sight to behold.

She had once asked Merlin, how long it would still take for them to reach Camelot and Merlin had replied, that they would have to travel at least five more days, if not a week. She had wondered, why Arthur would go on such a long trip without any knights and just his manservant, only to not slay a mythical beast.

At some point she had finally convinced Arthur to give her a shift too, so he and Merlin would get more sleep, arguing, that she had been doing fine, for some time before he and Merlin had stumbled into her camp and that she was not completely incapable of defending herself. This had earned her a quizzical look from Arthur and she had remembered, that she was supposed to be a fugitive from a burned down village. But Arthur didn't ask any more questions.

He had figured, that there was more to Anthea than she let on, but Merlin seemed to trust her, and he had resigned himself to not ask questions. Well for now anyway.

One night, when they were changing shift, she asked him what would happen to her when she came to Camelot. He asked back what she had been doing in her village and she fumbled to find an answer, finally settling on "Well a bit of everything... mostly cooking".

That hadn't really convinced Arthur since it had been her turn to cook today and well let's say tasting it had been an unsatisfying moment. But he had just nodded and said that maybe there would be a place for her in the kitchens. She had nodded as well and thanked him. She did not seem to be in complete awe of him, as many commoners were, once they discovered they were talking to the king, which was oddly refreshing, since she did not throw insults at his head like a certain manservant who was now happily snoring away in the tent.

If the forest had been dark, with only the after glow of the fire and the faint star light that fell through the trees to shed a bit of light, the inside of the tent was pitch black. Once his eyes had gotten used to the darkness, he could make out the shape of Merlin lying sprawled out on his bedroll on the very outside of the tent. He got on his knees and felt his way to his bed roll. Lying down, he turned to face Merlin. He couldn't see his face, but he could hear him breathe only centimetres away. He shuffled closer, until he could almost feel Merlin's breath on his face. Every time Merlin exhaled, he would make a little snoring noise, a bit like a cat sleeping away while purring. Arthur closed his eyes. In the darkness, he could hear Merlin's body shifting. Feeling the warmth of Merlin's body near his, he drifted of to sleep, almost not registering the slight pressure of something big and heavy coming to rest at his chest.

He woke up by the sound of Anthea shouting that they were being attacked. He could also hear the sound of iron hitting iron, almost like swords clashing. He jerked up, waking up Merlin who was disorientated for a moment, until he registered Anthea's repeated yelling that they should get up and help. Help? Was there an actual fight going on? Arthur grabbed a knife that lay next to his bedroll and stumbled outside. Followed by a puzzled Merlin. All his suspicions towards Anthea were confirmed in the picture that enfolds itself in front of him.

Anthea is used his sword to ward of three attackers at the same time, but Arthur could see, she was already having a hard time with two. He didn't have the time to be surprised over her sword fighting skills, because the sight of him distracted her for a split second that one of the attackers uses to try and land a fatal blow with his sword. Only her backing up fast enough prevented him from cutting of her arm. She ran towards him "Swap!", she yelled, when she saw his dagger. She threw the sword towards him and out of reflex he threw the dagger to her in the same moment. As soon as the sword is in his hands, he lunged out into battle. He took on two of the nightly invaders always keeping an eye if Anthea needed help, but she seemed to do fine, now that she had to deal with only one opponent. Because while Anthea had never been too skilled with a sword, she knew her way around knives and daggers, having learned to use them properly at a young age. She was fast, now that the sword didn't weigh her down anymore. She dodged several hits and then charged forward stabbing her opponent in the thigh then retreating quickly as he swung his sword towards her. She knew she wouldn't be able to disarm him, but she could at least distract him until Arthur had finished the others. With Arthur in the fight, it was over in no time. The attackers stood not a chance against the trained knight. When Arthur finally rose up behind her opponent and banged the hilt of his sword on his head, she was out of breath and way too hot for the cool night. Anthea tried to catch Arthur's eyes, but he turned away and started to talk to Merlin in a hushed voice. Probably questioning him, if he had known something. Anthea thought she should maybe panicked that Merlin might reveal something, but with the adrenaline wearing of she could feel the bruises forming on her shoulder, where one attacker had landed a blow with the flat side of his sword. She had been lucky, it could have easily cut of her arm. Her body felt strained, not used to fighting anymore. She had become rusty. Only occasionally shooting a wild cat with her make shift bow, but mostly living of what she caught in snares and from gathering wild fruit or stealing from farms.

She started to shiver, sweat running down her back, making her clothes cling to her skin and the cold air stick to her hands and face.

She looked over to Arthur and Merlin who where still whispering with each other. She tried to reach out to Merlin's mind, but she couldn't concentrate on maintaining the mental connection. She could feel the magic stirring inside her, probably unsettled by the sudden fight. Anthea shortly considered running away again afraid it would break out once again, but she quickly decided not to. She didn't know these woods anymore, and they would catch up to her in no time.

They seemed to have come to a conclusion. They walked past her, towards their unconscious attackers. Arthur without a word, Merlin giving her a quick "later". Merlin and Arthur proceeded to strip them men of any additional weapons (a hunting knife and a dagger) and tied them to a tree. They had apparently decided (though Anthea guessed it had taken quite some work from Merlin to make Arthur agree) that they could not travel the rest of the way to Camelot and let them go. When Anthea offered to help, Arthur brushed her of by ordering her to break down camp and prepare the horses for travelling, as they would move camp to avoid further attacks. That didn't make much sense to Anthea, but she obliged to get on the king's good side again.

They were moving in almost complete darkness, guided by Merlin who had dug up a torch and lighted it in the "they are still hot Arthur don't worry" remains of the camp fire, Anthea knew he had used magic, the fire had burned down about an hour ago and besides, she had seen Merlin's eyes glow golden, the spark on his finger when he light the torch. In a different situation she would have wondered how Arthur could still be so oblivious about Merlin's magic, after the two had known each other for almost ten years already. Merlin guided them further and further through the forest, insisting they brought as much distance between themselves and their attackers as possible. When Anthea finally managed to subdue the attempts of her magic to flare up and reached out to Merlin's mind, she asked why they couldn't just settle down now, for the rest of the night and travel faster the next day, his answer was grim: _"One of them had a tracking spell placed on him. I'm pretty sure it was Morgana who placed it. I don't exactly know why she send them, but I guess she thought Arthur would take them hostage, so it would be easy to track us down. That's why we left them at the tree."_

She didn't ask any more questions.

Arthur too was a bit taken a back by his servants determination, but he knew Merlin long enough to know, that he often made the right choices, even though they seemed a bit odd or downright stupid sometimes. Of course he would never tell Merlin that, but he had stopped seeing Merlin as a mere servant a long time ago. He was his best friend, probably more than that. But one could never let Merlin know that, Arthur would never hear the end of it. They were silently moving through the dark, following the glow of Merlin's torch. The only noises they could hear were small animals, going after their nightly business. Even their horses seemed to try and move more quietly than usual. Behind him Anthea's horse stepped on a rout, the knock of hove against wood and the stumbling sound that followed seemed to loud.

Anthea, he though, it was curious. Of course he had not believed the story of the burned down village, that had been in a completely different direction, but Merlin had trusted her. Merlin was good with knowing who to trust and who not. Arthur sometimes wondered how he did it, but he never asked. Seeing her in combat this night had surprised him. He had known there was more to her than met the eye, seeing as at their first encounter she held a dead rabbit in her hand, he had thought maybe she was the daughter of a hunter who had shown her how to set snares, but seeing her take a fight on three men at the same time this night, he had to admit was impressive. And not something a hunter's daughter should be able to do. Of course she wasn't near as good as Morgana, but that was hard to be, and she didn't seem very comfortable fighting with a sword, but when he had thrown her that dagger, she seemed to know exactly what to do. He wasn't sure what to make of her, nothing about her seemed to make sense to him anymore. Who was this girl – no woman, young woman – and what were her intentions?

Dawn was starting to break, when Arthur finally insisted they should stop and make camp, if not to sleep themselves, then at least to give the horses some rest. While Merlin wasn't particularly happy about this and agreed only reluctantly, Anthea looked downright relieved.

After they had started a fire and ate a quick breakfast in silence, Arthur started to ask questions. Anthea sat close to the fire, she had stopped shivering, after she had crammed out an old, ugly, patched together coat out of her bag, but she still seemed uncomfortable.

"I want you to tell me the truth, nothing but the truth." Arthur said to her. She looked up and nodded.

"What is your name?"

"Anthea"

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

So she was not a noble then. Figured with those clothes and that horse and the riding through the woods by herself.

"Who taught you to fight?"

"My father"

He nodded.

"And my uncles.", she added after a pause

"Who was your father? Who were your uncles?"

She looked up to Merlin, seeking for help, but he shrugged signing, that he didn't know what she should answer. So she told him the truth: "They were robbers. I grew up with a band of robbers."

She looked at Arthur, unsure of the reaction this confession would bring.

He nodded again.

"What do you want in Camelot? Why are you travelling with us?" He asked. "Why did you leave your family?"

"I- " she began "I-" she tried again, not knowing how to convincingly answer this question, without giving herself or Merlin away. She tried to look ashamed: "I didn't want to be a criminal anymore.", she said very fast, as if it was a relief to finally tell the truth "I wanted to find an honest work, I have heard the stories of Camelot and I dreamt of the castle and then one night I ran of. A few days later I met you. I hoped I could keep it secret, because I am not very proud of my past." At least that part was true.

Arthur looked at her quizzically: "Is this the truth this time?"

She hesitated, for a split second: "Yes"

"Merlin come over here." Arthur said and the two walked of again to the horses. Leaving Anthea alone.

"Since you came up with the story of the burned village I suppose you knew of this?" Arthur snapped at Merlin. "Did you honestly think I would believe this? I'm not an idiot _Mer_lin!"

Merlin opened his mouth as if to object, but Arthur raised his palm and he closed it again.

"You know you are a terrible liar right Merlin? Why did you not tell me the truth?"

"I thought you were going to leave her behind, if he told you the truth."

"Why was it so important to you, that she came with us?"

Merlin opened his mouth, then closed it again and looked away. His ears turned bright red.

"My god Merlin you _like _her?!"

Merlin looked up at him, a slightly shocked expression on his face "I-"

"Oh come on Merlin don't deny it, I can see the way you look at her."

Merlin looked at _him_ with an incredulous expression, but after a moment quickly nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes I like her, happy sire?"

'Not really' Arthur wanted to say, but instead he said: "Do you trust her?"

"Yes, I do", he said without hesitation.

"All right then, you know I trust your judgement – don't look at me like that, you know I do – we will take her with us, I will get her a job as a maiden or in the kitchens or something. Maybe Gaius can take her in, than you have more time for your duties for me."

He gave a perplex looking Merlin a clap on the shoulder and returned to Anthea.

"I have decided to allow you to come with us. I don't easily forget someone who saved mine and Merlin's life. If you swear to turn your back on the crimes in your past an to be loyal towards Camelot."

"Thank you." Anthea said softly. This was way more than she could have hoped for. She wondered why Merlin was blushing in the background and looking completely starstruck.

"While we are travelling, you will be my sparring partner, even though your skills with a sword need improvement, you will be much more helpful than Merlin has ever been."

She wasn't sure if that was meant as a compliment, or if he had just insulted Merlin in a very clever way. But she nodded gratefully and then offered to help with packing up the things, because Merlin insisted they had been to long in one place already.

After they had been riding the whole day, in higher speed, because Merlin was still nervous about the tracking spell, he finally decided it was safe now to set camp and rest for the night.

Anthea could have fallen straight asleep, but Arthur insisted on the sparring session.

It was terrible to say the least. Arthur started with testing her actual skill, and a lot of her memory about sword fighting came back to her, she remembered more techniques, but she was still fighting more or less without any tactic, mainly trying to hit, while not getting hit.

When he was done, she was bathed in sweat and panting, while he had just started to get warm. He told her to take a short break and put the blade aside, while he would explain a few things to her.

Why they carried two blunt swords around did not really interest Anthea anymore, while the king of Camelot gave her a sword fighting lesson.

This would become a routine, Arthur seemed to enjoy teaching her, even though she was no good at using the techniques he showed her in actual combat against him at first, because she still fought more by instinct than by thinking about it.

Arthur once told her, that the whole point of practising was to make the thinking and the techniques instinctual, but Anthea took her time to actually comprehend it.

After training with Arthur, which was always a bit frustrating, since she was a wreck after 15 minutes, while he was jumping around excitedly, showing of for Merlin (who pretended not to notice), Merlin would make a big fuss about her and urge her to eat and drink. She didn't really understand why he was all of a sudden so interested in her well being. Sure they had some sort of understanding, because of their mutual secret and they got along well, but Merlin seemed determined to convince someone of something.

One night, after Arthur had gone to sleep, she came out earlier than usual to free Merlin from the first guard, sat down next to him and asked him what was going on.

"Arthur thinks I have a crush on you, that's why he let you come a long with us, and now I try to convince him it was the right decision." He said softly and looked a bit miserable.

"You don't have to if it makes you feel bad", she said.

"It doesn't make me feel, bad, I'm glad I can help, it's just hard to pretend to pretend to be in love with someone else when - " He stopped and looked down at the twig he was rolling between his fingers.

"When you actually love him?", she asked.

"How do you know?"

"Oh please, a blind man could see _that_. It's fine, you know that Merlin right? We don't choose who we love."

"Have you ever loved anyone so badly it hurt to see him with someone else, even though that someone is one of your best friends?"

"No, never, but living in a cave for three years, one doesn't exactly have the opportunity you know."

"Hmh sorry to remind you"

"No problem."

He looked at his hands again. They had pulverized the twig, and were now covered in fine dust.

"That someone," she asked "is that his wife?"

"Yes. He loved her since basically ever. She used to be Morgana's maiden."

"It's not just that though", he added "it's also that a man being with a man … it's sin. He could never do that, the church would hate him. It is unnatural, unthinkable."

They both sat in silence for a while, both occupied by their own thoughts, starring into the dark forest. It was so silent they could hear Arthur's steady breathing from the tent. Finally Anthea shivered and got up to get her old coat. When she sat back down she spoke again: "Merlin?"

"hu"

"Have you ever loved anyone as much as you love Arthur?"

"Yes, once, this girl, Freya. I almost gave up Arthur for her."

He told her about the shape shifting girl, he had loved so much and who had died in his arms.

"I sometimes see her," he said, "In the water of the lake. She became it's guardian after she died."

They sat in silence again, unsure what to say, trying to think of a way to end this painful conversation properly.

"Didn't you say, your destinies were entwined? Something about being two sides of the same coin?"

"Yes? Why?"

"Because if that is true, then maybe, in another life, you will meet him again, and everything will be different. Who knows what the future will bring, there is always hope Merlin. I learned that, when I met you two."

"You should go to sleep", she added.

He got up and brushed of the dirt from his trousers. He walked towards the tent. Halfway he turned around again: "Anthea?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." And with that he made the rest of the way to the tent and got in. Anthea could hear him shuffle around with his bedroll. Finally going silent, when he seemed to have found a comfortable position.

She smiled and looked in the darkness, this felt good, having a friend.

**AN: Thank you for reading, review, tell me your feedback, if you have constructive criticism, tell me! I need it! Everyone have a cookie.  
>It's 01:00 am, I'm going to bed bye.<strong>


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